You may decide to stay with this therapist for many reasons but I hope your thought of 'losing' two and a half years of your life will not be one of the reasons. Those years must have meant something to you - enough so that you have felt some growth or change or progress. So, it's NOT a loss. It's like your favorite professors - you admire them and they teach you a lot but then there comes a time to move on. They no longer serve your purposes. And the time with them had not been 'lost'.

Same with the stuff you talked about, the vulnerability you displayed. Similarly in school you are challenged and you learn and you expose yourself. All of those lessons serve you as you leave the university for graduate school, for example.

So, please don't let this be your argument for not seeking a different therapist. You may have other arguments that convince you to stay with her but to believe your time with her was a waste if you leave is categorically not true.

Good luck.